Stock Market Game

In past offerings of EM-16: Real-Life Statistics, students virtually invested in the stock market in order to apply statistics concepts. After learning concepts like expected value, variance, and regression toward the mean, students formed teams and received $10,000 virtual dollars. They then used a custom website to "invest" and track their investments. During the semester, there were two write ups relating to this, one where students had to explain why they chose the stocks they chose and connect their choice back to statistical concepts, and another where students had to predict the stock's point estimate and interval at the end of the semester. At the end, the team with the most money and the team with the best prediction won a prize.

Professor Xiao-Li Meng and grad student Kari Lock, in a paper on the activity, note, "Students got extremely involved in this competition, checking and updating their portfolios daily!"

While this activity used a custom-built website, similar websites are available online, like this.